There are just four guys in Rud Eile, but listing the guests on their debut (and, apparently, only) recording will take some time. Let's get to it:

Amy Basse, Aoife Clancy, Regina Delaney, Kevin Doherty, Declan Houton, Andrew Harkin, Patrick Murray, Christy O'Connell, Johnny Towey and Sally Tucker.

Deep breath.

Also, Bob Condon, Mary Doherty, Jackson Galloway, Steve Lindsay, Susan Gedutis-Lindsay, Marty Murphy, Greg Tucker, Deirdre Wait and Patsy Whelen.

The band's name is Gaelic for "something else," and it certainly applies to this recording.

The band itself, by the way, is Martin Butler, Colm O'Brien, Jerry Murphy and Matt Glover. Sorry, I almost forgot to include them! This album, by the Massachusetts-based band, strives to recapture the feel of an Irish session, in which a whole bunch of people join in on different songs and the audience never knows quite what to expect. Well, it works.

Sure, it's a whole lot more polished than you'd expect if all of the people listed above were sitting in a circle, chatting and downing pints as they played. This is quite obviously a studio recording, and the performers weren't all together when they played. But the scope and variety of the music is stunning, and the musicianship of the performers involved is unquestionably grand.

According to an article I found on the website for the Patriot-Ledger, a newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, the band broke up when pennywhistler Murphy returned to Ireland and bodhranist Butler retired from performing. (The article doesn't mention mandolin player Glover, so I'm not sure what happened to him.) Singer/guitarist O'Brien formed a new duo with fiddler Sean O'Connor and benched the "Rud Eile" name ... preferring, I suppose to perform as "something else" indeed.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anyway, Rud Eile left behind this album, which is a sum far greater than its parts. I imagine the four men were pretty good by themselves, but with this incredible group of musicians supporting them, it's exceptional. And it's quite varied, given the disparate performers on any given track. (No, you won't hear all 23 people on any single track; the lineup on each ranges from three to eight at a time.) So, you can expect different voices joining O'Brien's on some tracks, and you'll hear the addition of many additional instruments, from accordion and cello to harp and uilleann pipes.

Nice job, guys. I'm sorry Rud Eile didn't last longer, but thanks for the CD all the same!